Berkeley Nutraceuticals - Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals - Lifekey Ripoff Avlimil shipments automatically shipped and charged after cancellation Cincinnati Ohio

This company advertises a 30 day free trial of their product, Avlimil. When you go to the web site to order, you must provide a credit card to cover shipping costs. The site makes it clear that you will automatically receive additional shipments at a price of $70 if you do not cancel before the shipment date and directs you to a web site where this cancelation can be made.

After placing my order, I did a search on the Internet regarding the product and learned that many, many people were having problems cancelling these charges. As such, I immediately went to the web site and cancelled my enrollment in their "Established Customer Program" or as they sometimes refer to it, the "Managed Care Direct" program. I have a printed cancellation form stating that I will not receive automatic shipments, dated April 24, 2004.

On May 22, 2004 I received an additional two month supply of Avlimil and have been charged $70. I called their customer service line and informed them that I had a printed confirmation of my cancellation dated nearly one month prior to this shipment. Rather than crediting my account for $70, the customer service representative offered me a $35 credit, stating that now I got to keep a three month supply of something I don't want for only $35 - what a bargain.

He stated that they never received the cancellation because I cancelled on the same day I ordered, so there was no account to cancel. I feel that is a flaw in the web site, as it came back with confirmation of the cancellation and not a notice that they couldn't find the account. I had no way of knowing that the cancellation was not registered, and so did not revisit the cancellation site. The representative claimed the web site says you must wait 48 hours before cancelling, but I can find no such notice.

From what I can tell, there is no actual way to get the 30 day trial without paying them some money, which constitutes false advertising and just plain fraud.

AP
Atlanta, Georgia
U.S.A.